Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership Mark Graban Podcasts

My guest for Episode #502 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is DeWayne Allen, an executive, speaker, and workshop facilitator.
Episode page with video, transcript, and more
DeWayne is a results-driven executive with over 20 years of experience, renowned for leveraging a solid engineering and operations background to propel growth for Fortune 500 organizations. 
As a visionary leader, DeWayne excels in crafting and executing strategic plans to deliver desired outcomes. With a proven track record in fostering relationships and adeptly managing cross-functional teams, DeWayne ensures seamless alignment of internal operations with overarching business objectives. 
He is also a trusted advisor to C-suite executives for strategic decision-making.
DeWayne is dedicated to empowering 1000+ Black leaders to become influential corporate executives through STEM education, fostering diversity, equity, and innovation.
In this episode, we discuss how industrial engineering principles can be harnessed into strategic corporate leadership. Allen, who began his career as an engineer, spotlights his use of Six Sigma, lean methodologies, and continuous improvement tactics to tackle modern business challenges, from corporate turnarounds to driving growth. His success in transitioning into business-oriented roles, executing lean success in dynamic environments, and managing diverse operational aspects as a general manager add to his rich collection of professional experiences.
Moreover, Allen's innovative application of lean methodologies to the hectic process of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) demonstrate his knack for using these principles regardless of context. And his view on incorporating lean management within nonprofits signals a broader utility for these principles outside of just manufacturing or profit-centered entities. In light of Allen's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), he champions the integration of these ethical and social values with lean principles for greater operational excellence. Join us and delve deeper into the workings of DeWayne Allen's lean philosophy and powerful leadership style.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What's your Lean origin story?
As a leader, helping everybody feel like and work like ONE TEAM?
Becoming a formal leader — steps to work up to being a GM?
What are some of your favorite stories or examples of using Lean throughout your career?
You've worked as General Manager — The split of your time and attention? 
What was your view of Lean in that role and what you learned there?
Tell us about applying Lean in Mergers and Acquisitions work? Can you make that a process?
Tell us about your work in the Non-profit space – National Society of Black Engineers, applying it there?
The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

Episode page
My guest for Episode #501 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Marcia Daszko, a speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant.
For more than 25 years, she has passionately been speaking, consulting, and guiding executive teams in Fortune 500/private corporations; education, the U.S. Navy; and non-profits to achieve exponential success. 
Mentored by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, she is nominated for the International Deming Prize; and writes a leadership column for the Silicon Valley Business Journal. She has taught MBA classes at six universities.
Marcia's author of the book Pivot Disrupt Transform: How Leaders Beat the Odds and Survive. She was also co-author of Turning Ideas into Impact: Insights from 16 Silicon Valley Consultants.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
How did you get connected to W. Edwards Deming?
What was it like spending time with Dr. Deming? 
Not just statistics? Challenging ideas like performance appraisals
“Change management is another management fad”
Tell us more about the consulting work that you've done and do?
“Identify your problems accurately to problem-solve”??
Helping leaders with “Accelerate efficient, effective data-driven decision-making”??
Accountability and responsibility — big difference
Am I blaming executives unfairly???
3 Fundamental Business Strategies?
“Hope is not a business strategy”
Continual vs. Continuous?
The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

Episode page with transcript and more
My guest for Episode #500 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is me, your usual host Mark Graban. Today, I'm mixing up the format with a solo episode that celebrates 500 episodes over almost 18 years.
I'll share some of the origin story and history of the podcast. You'll hear clips from Episode 1 (with Norm Bodek) and Episode 50 (where Jamie Flinchbaugh asked me about getting started). You'll also hear a clip from a recent conversation where Barry McCarthy, of AME Australia, asked me about persisting with podcasting all these years.
Thanks for listening, whether this is your first time, you've listened to them all, or somewhere in between!
The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 
Notes and Highlights:
More than 500 episodes in 921 weeks, a little more than one every two weeks for 17.75 years
3,276,745 total downloads / listens, although I'm not convinced the stats are 100% consistent
The top 10 most downloaded episodes
The most frequent guests (#1 is Norman Bodek with 14 episodes)
One anonymous guest
Where listeners are from
The origin story and the intro to Episode #1
A clip from Episode #50
My reflections on the clunky podcast name
A shift over time from “big names” to highlighting new faces and their stories
The one time I forgot to record!
In memoriam: guests who have passed away

My guest for Episode #499 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is James P. Womack. Jim really needs no introduction for this audience, he's the founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute (in 1987) and remains a senior advisor to them.
Episode page with transcript and more
In the late eighties, he and Dan Jones led MIT's International Motor Vehicle Research Program (IMVP), which introduced the term “lean” to describe Toyota's revolutionary management system.
Based on that research, Womack coauthored The Machine That Changed the World (Macmillan/Rawson Associates, 1990), Lean Thinking (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Lean Solutions (Simon & Schuster, 2005), and Seeing the Whole Value Stream (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011).  
Jim was really gracious and helpful to me in being an early guest on this podcast, going back to Episode 12 in late 2006 when we talked about Lean in China. Today is his 8th appearance on the podcast: 7 times solo and once last September as part of a group that did a post-game show with me after the GE Lean Mindset event.
I've seen and talked with Jim many times over the past decade, so it's totally my fault that I haven't had him on since 2011. When I asked him to come back to help celebrate 500 episodes, he quickly agreed — and I'll have him back again much sooner than this last gap between appearances.
In today's episode, Jim shares reflections and stories on a number of companies, countries, and topics, including:
China and Vietnam
GM, Toyota, Boeing, Danaher, Rivian, and Tesa
And he answers some questions that were suggested by LinkedIn commenters.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
I think listeners would love to know what keeps you busy these days in the world of Lean?
Planet Lean – celebrating 10 years
A few people asked: How can we influence a union to start embracing Lean, when the union at our company has been actively against it from the start?
Lean in China – almost 18 years ago episode – Ep 12 — Thoughts on how things have evolved?
Has Tesla ever invited you to visit their gemba?
Which companies does he consider to be Lean exemplars in the United States?
What do you think we, as a Lean community, could/should do better?
Read Ed Schein's Organizational Culture and Leadership
Did you ever meet Dr. Deming?
The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.
This episode is also brought to you by “The Optimistic Outlook,” hosted by Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. This podcast is a hub for those passionate about transformative concepts that shape both our workplaces and our world. Find it in your favorite podcast app.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

This episode will be exclusive to subscribers until Wednesday, February 28th.

My guest for Episode #499 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is James P. Womack. Jim really needs no introduction for this audience, he’s the founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute (in 1987) and remains a senior advisor to them.

In the late eighties, he and Dan Jones led MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Research Program (IMVP), which introduced the term “lean” to describe Toyota’s revolutionary management system.

Based on that research, Womack coauthored The Machine That Changed the World (Macmillan/Rawson Associates, 1990), Lean Thinking (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Lean Solutions (Simon & Schuster, 2005), and Seeing the Whole Value Stream (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011).

Jim was really gracious and helpful to me in being an early guest on this podcast, going back to Episode 12 in late 2006 when we talked about Lean in China. Today is his 8th appearance on the podcast: 7 times solo and once last September as part of a group that did a post-game show with me after the GE Lean Mindset event.

I’ve seen and talked with Jim many times over the past decade, so it’s totally my fault that I haven’t had him on since 2011. When I asked him to come back to help celebrate 500 episodes, he quickly agreed — and I’ll have him back again much sooner than this last gap between appearances.

In today's episode, Jim shares reflections and stories on a number of companies, countries, and topics, including:

China and Vietnam

GM, Toyota, Boeing, Danaher, Rivian, and Tesa

And he answers some questions that were suggested by LinkedIn commenters.

My guest for Episode #498 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jeffrey K. Liker. Jeff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Michigan, President of Liker Lean Advisors, and author of the great books in the Toyota Way series.
Episode page with video, transcript, and more
He was previously a guest here in Episodes 3, 4, 37, 39, 41, 111, and 400.
Today, we have a discussion centered around learning from mistakes in the context of Toyota and lean methodologies. The episode delves into the significance of recognizing, reacting to, and learning from mistakes within organizations that employ Toyota Production System (TPS) or lean strategies. Jeff shares his insights on how Toyota's culture of continuous improvement and learning from errors fundamentally drives its success. The conversation touches on Toyota's approach to leadership and problem-solving, emphasizing the structured response to mistakes at different levels of the organization, from the factory floor to top management.
The episode further explores the Toyota leadership model, illustrating how leaders at various levels are expected to react when mistakes occur. Liker explains the role of the andon cord system in facilitating immediate problem identification and resolution, showcasing Toyota's commitment to quality and efficiency. He elaborates on the multi-layered leadership response to errors, detailing the responsibilities of team leaders, group leaders, and higher management in fostering a culture of learning and improvement. The discussion underscores the importance of a systemic approach to problem-solving, where the focus is on understanding and addressing the root causes of mistakes rather than attributing blame to individuals. This episode offers valuable insights into the principles of lean leadership and the critical role of acknowledging and learning from mistakes in achieving organizational excellence and innovation.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
How you'd expect Toyota leaders to react to a mistake on the factory floor?
Less likely to blame an individual? 
Root cause vs. controllable cause?
That can be a tough lesson to teach other companies?
Hardest habit to break is the blame habit?
Mistakes people make in trying to help change behavior
What's necessary, in another company's workplace culture, for people to feel safe pulling the andon cord or speaking up?
Article about the Ford plant and andon cords in 2007
Jeff insights on that Dearborn plant
The mention of psychological safety in “Toyota Culture”?
What do you think of the phrase “psychological safety”? Or just the concept of it?
Fujio Cho – biggest surprise was that TMMK workers were afraid to pull the andon cord
New book: Engaging the Team at Zingerman's Mail Order
The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.
This episode is also brought to you by “The Optimistic Outlook,” hosted by Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. This podcast is a hub for those passionate about transformative concepts that shape both our workplaces and our world. Find it in your favorite podcast app.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.